Is Jake Owen Ready for the Rope Swing?

Garth Brooks recently announced he’d be making his comeback with a world tour in 2014. And I don’t want to disappoint anyone, but I have to let everyone know that Garth Brooks at 52 might not be exactly like Garth Brooks at 35.

Yes, 35. Brooks was 35 when he put on an amazing show in 1997, Garth Brooks Live in Central Park. It was a free show, and Brooks played for right around 1 million fans stretched out over 14 acres in New York City.

“I’ll never forget when HBO aired Garth Brooks Live in Central Park,” Owen said in a recent radio interview. He added that he loved all the envelopes Brooks was pushing back in the ’90s.

“Just watching this dude on a full-on swing set, like rope swing, swing out over the crowd and then come back?” he said. “I want to do that.”

Owen promises that someday the guy on the swing will be him.

“That will happen at some point in one of my shows, but I just haven’t gotten there yet,” he said.

Brooks was definitely the trendsetter in the swing-out-over-the-crowd innovations. He was one of the first country stars to use a cordless headset microphone and a harness so he could sing to the fans in the seats in the way, way back. Since then, Kenny Chesney, Tim McGraw, Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood and more have all borrowed Brooks’ great idea.

So it makes sense that Owen would want to follow Brooks’ lead, too. I’m not sure if Brooks is going to go back to his harness for his 2014 tour. If not, maybe Owen could borrow it for his next tour.